I met my yachting coach today.
I don’t remember if I blogged about it, so I’ll mention it here. I used to do a lot of sailing back when I was a kid. I never got up to a professional level, but never-the-less I got good enough to participate in a few competitions here and there.
I almost forgot (until today that is) that yachting was a big part of my life a few years ago. There were summers when I spent entire days in the club.
It was fun. It was a perfect mix of physical training, water sports, and social life. And, of course, the good part of it all being fun was due to my coach.
My father called me the other day saying that my coach is going to stay in Limassol for a few days. He also told me the dates and the name of the hotel.
It’s been more than 10 years since we saw each other. I was wondering if I would recognize him (probably) and if he would recognize me (probably not). I called him up and we arranged to meet.
He recognized me alright. I didn’t have any troubles either.
He’s still the same. He just got a bit older. His moves are a tiny bit slower. But he still looks pretty good. He’s a strong man. And a strong personality. And he still has this huge kind heart which shines through his eyes and gives itself through his voice. He still has the same look in his eyes – it’s like he both sees a kid in me, and like he sees a man that he respects. He always had this respect for all of us – kids in in the club. Maybe that’s why we liked him so much…
Suddenly, I had this wave tsunami of memories. Nothing particularly stood out. Just a whole bunch of little episodes. Different places, different people, different years even. But all of them had three things in common – they were all around the yachting theme, my coach was always nearby, and all of them were really nice memories – warm and kind.
I was surprised by myself. As much as I always try to remember the good parts of my life and replay them in my mind once in a while, I had this huge period of time dumped somewhere in the dark corner of my memory.
I’m glad it came back. There’s plenty of stuff I want to remember…